Johnston's River Line Defense, Atlanta-- Part 4: A Unique Design

Construction on what initially was called the  Chattahoochee River Line started on June 19 and took about two weeks using a labor force of soldiers well enough to work from local hospitals and over 1,000 impressed slaves.  I like to think this was when Scarlett O'Hara saw slaves from Tara going through the streets of Atlanta with picks and shovels in the movie "Gone With the Wind."

Some trenches already existed near the state railroad bridge but the vast amount of defenses had to be built from scratch.

THE SHOUPETTES

Francis A. Shoup's defensive design consisted of arrowhead-shaped infantry forts -- 36 were built -- spaced 175 yards apart and connected by trenches broken every  30 to 75 yards by artillery redans that each would house two cannons.

Each of the arrowhead forts, which came to be called Shoupades after the designer, consisted of an earthen foundation with log walls or parapets extending 14 to 20 feet high depending upon the terrain.  Interior earthen walls would stop short of the log exterior walls, forming a platform on which infantrymen could fire over the top of the fort.

And, There's More.  --Old Secesh

"Lorena" Songwriter-- Part 6: All About Lorena

"Lorena" became a naming trend.  Riverboats and baby girls share the invented name.  Author Frank Slaughter wrote a novel of the same name, but his heroine was 16 and has the name that wasn't in existence at the time of her birth.

I looked up the name Lorena in Wikipedia and it said that the name "Lorena" might have come from Henry DeLafayette's poem used as the words to "Lorena" in which he used an anagram of Edgar Allan Poe's Lenore in "The Raven."

In Margaret Mitchell's book "Gone With the Wind" (not in the movie, however), Scarlett O'Hara's daughter with Frank Kennedy was named Ella Lorena Kennedy.

There was a list of famous Lorenas.  The only one I recognized  was the wife of John Wayne Bobbitt.

Mighty Scared of Mrs. Bobbitt.  --Old Secesh

"Gone With the Wind" Items Displayed-- Part 3: Scarlett's Shantytown Dress

Jim Tumblin bought Scarlett O'Hara's shantytown dress first, after seeing it on the studio floor and learning it was going to be thrown away. He bought it and a rack of clothes from other movies for $20. (You have to wonder what these would be worth today?)

But, things got considerably more expensive and he had to pay $8,500 for Scarlett's straw hat from the Twelve Oaks barbecue and $50,000 for Vivian Leigh's Academy Award.

He also has a copy of the script Selznick gave Hattie McDowell, who became the first black to win an Academy Award.

Next year, 2014, will be the 75th anniversary of GWTW (that'd be "Gone With the Wind).

--Old Secesh

Seven Reasons Why We Still Love "Gone With the Wind"

From the June 7th Alaska Dispatch, from the Christian Science Monitor by Husna Haq.

Seventy-five years ago this month, an unknown young journalist from Atlanta submitted a package stuffed with dozens of manila folders to a publisher.

Margaret Mitchell's book, "Gone With the Wind" has since been translated into 36 languages, sold hundreds of millions of copies worldwide and won a Pulitzer Prize. Oh yes, then there was that movie that won eight Academy Awards.

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Here are seven reasons why it continues to be a favorite:

7. Scarlett O'Hara is irresistible.
6. It provides such a compelling image of the Civil War-era (both before and after) South.
5. It teaches us about rebuilding a shattered economy.
4. It's the romance, stupid!!
3. It speaks to everyone.
2. It makes us talk about war.
1. It's just such a great story.

Besides seeing the movie many, many, many times. I even read the book and it is big and has a lot of words!!

Enough Said. --Old B-Runner